Modern Drummer
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Story by Jeff Potter Photos by Rahav MODERN DRUMMER • January 2011 hould you step into Michael law, Michael approaches each of his f Carvin hadn’t been nurtured Carvin’s drum studio for a lesson, students in such a way as to help them in music, he surely would have suc- Sbe prepared to stand on your own find who they are. He is truly one of the Iceeded as a motivational speaker. two feet. There’s heat in this kitchen. great minds of our times.” His animated verbal discourses are Carvin does not ask that you arrive as a But when things do get hairy in that Muhammad Ali meets Tony Robbins technique savant. He does not ask that studio, beware. Carvin has witnessed meets boot-camp drill sergeant. you hike the Himalayas to receive his “grown men” scramble for the exit in “Teachers come to teach, not to hold wisdom. But if he accepts a student, he tears. From the moment a student hands,” he says. “I tell my students, ‘I does ask one thing. “I want them to enters, the teacher scrutinizes any would rather you hate me and be suc- cessful than love me and be a failure.’ Through discipline comes freedom. I believe in that, man.” Discipline has rewarded Carvin with a playing style of precision chops fueled by spontaneity and a bold, earthy sound. Outspoken and provoca- tive, Michael speaks with sudden shifts between severity and sentimentality, elation and gravity. He cuts a strong presence, as an impassioned man who’s forged his own path through great self-determination. And he’d love to help you do it too. The master’s colorful sermons of rhythm are peppered with memorable catchphrases and pearls of wisdom. One saying in particular stands as his defining motto. “‘Each one, teach one’ is something I’ve always believed in,” Carvin says. “In the African tradition we have storytellers. There’s a man in the tribe that passes on knowledge. And there’s always one young man that the master recognizes will be the next sto- ryteller. He will take that young man and teach him everything that he knows about the history of the tribe. know what they want,” he says, allow- chinks in confidence. “I say, ‘Play That’s ‘Each one, teach one.’ As a drum ing a long pause. “I can’t teach you how something that you like,’” Michael teacher, I am a ‘master.’ If I have to play drums. But I’ll introduce you to explains, “And he’ll say, ‘What do you accepted a student, I tell him, ‘Every yourself. And once I introduce you to want to hear?’ I’ll say, ‘What did I just time you walk through that door, yourself, you can make all your dreams tell you?’ He automatically shuts down! you’re telling me one thing: “Carvin, come true.” Because it’s that first sign of discipline. I’m putting my fate in your hands.”’ For those who survive the heat, the I didn’t be his ‘friend.’ I shut him down. And by you trusting me to put the fate results are undeniable, as proven by the And I do it on purpose. Now he’s begin- of your music career in my hands, it is long roster of Carvin alumni who are ning to…lose…it. I’m not trying to be my duty and honor to teach you every- now notables in the jazz world, many of his buddy or be a ‘nice guy.’ A ‘nice thing I know.” them praising their mentor with devo- guy’ is a con man. tional zeal. One such star “Then I say to him, ‘What is your THE JOURNEY student is MD Pro Panel member dream in life?’ His mind is frozen now, Since the 1960s, Carvin has covered a Allison Miller. “Michael Carvin is a and I tell him, ‘Every dream I’ve had in sweeping arc of styles, which has led to force!” she says. “He changed my whole my life has come true.’ And that’s the recognition among a long list of jazz philosophy behind the kit.” truth. This is America, man. At this heavies and a productive career as a And Eric McPherson’s take: “For me, point he doesn’t know what’s happen- leader. Also a tireless crusader champi- Michael’s influence transcended art. ing to him. But that’s the same thing oning the drumkit as a total melodic His influence was greatest on my life as that happens when a guy counts a instrument, he has explored solo per- a whole. While most teachers impose tempo off. You have to make a decision, formances in addition to his ensemble their personal approach on students as right or wrong.” work, as captured on 1996’s Drum Reprinted by permission of Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. © 2011 www.moderndrummer.com RECORDINGS Michael Carvin Lost And Found Project 2065, Marsalis Music Honors Series, Each One Teach One, Revelation, Between Me And You, First Time, Drum Concerto At Dawn /// Jackie McLean & Michael Carvin Antiquity /// Michael Carvin & Andrew Cyrille Weights And Measures FAVORITES Cannonball Adderley Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley (Louis Hayes) /// Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers A Night In Tunisia (Art Blakey) /// Les McCann & Eddie Harris Swiss Movement (Donald Dean) /// Oliver Nelson The Blues And The Abstract Truth (Roy Haynes) /// Horace Silver The Tokyo Blues (Joe Harris, credited as John Harris Jr.) /// Jimmy Smith Back At The Chicken Shack (Donald Bailey) /// Jimmy Smith Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (uncredited, but most likely Donald Bailey) /// Albert Collins Frostbite (Casey Jones) /// Koko Taylor The Earthshaker (Vince Chappelle) /// Johnny Copeland Texas Twister (Candy McDonald, Julian Vaughan, Jimmy Wormworth) into it [points to his heart], because I oned. Growing restless, Carvin said so could already play 8th notes and back- long to security as well as the limiting beat at eight years old. But to really anonymity of studio work. He hun- Concerto At Dawn. feel it… I always had fast hands, but I kered down in San Francisco for a hia- As his passion for teaching evolved, learned other things at Motown. I sat tus of shedding (“I was working on Carvin bloomed into one of New York and sat in that pocket.” Michael Carvin”) and built connec- City’s most revered drum gurus. He Remembering those grooving ses- tions. With a growing rep, he made the dismisses the label jazz, but he’s sions, Carvin recalls a subliminal pres- move to New York and was quickly earned that right. To those who insist ence in the Motown tracks: a person ushered around the jazz world’s inner on defining a “swing” feel, Carvin stomping quarter notes from the cor- circle. Freddie Hubbard snapped up responds, “I don’t see ‘rock’ or ‘jazz.’ ner of the studio. Responding to a sug- the fledgling, after which Carvin did an It’s a beat! Check it out—it’s a beat.” gestion that it provided a “felt click inspirational stint with alto sax great The man becomes breathless while track,” Carvin shrugs. “To me it’s Jackie McLean. The new drummer in discussing the sprawling family of just a guy stomping on floorboards.” town eventually amassed a heavy rhythm, whether it be bands, track That response harks back to his youth. résumé, over the years gigging and stars, the Russian Ballet, Times Square As a boy, Carvin asked his dad for a recording with such luminaries as bucket players, John Philip Sousa, or metronome. “But,” he says with a Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hutcherson, double-Dutch rope jumpers. laugh, “my father said, ‘Why do you Hank Jones, Hampton Hawes, Illinois “The beat” has been Carvin’s guid- think I bought you a bass drum?’ Then Jacquet, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy ing star ever since his father taught my father explained, ‘If you’re practic- Tyner, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, him drums, starting when Michael was ing to a metronome as a drummer, Jimmy Smith, Gerry Mulligan, Cecil five. He still thrills about his drum- you’re listening to another drummer Taylor, Alice Coltrane, James Moody, captain days in high school: “We to keep time for you, so you will never Hugh Masekela, Hamiet Bluiett, Larry marched with 110 bodies that I moved learn the responsibility of keeping time.’ Young, Pat Martino, Terumasa Hino, up and down the football field, taking Once you build a man’s confidence, he and Abbey Lincoln, among others. the command of their left and right can rule the rest of the music. If you McLean’s gig offered Carvin a rare feet from me. That’s power!” break his confidence, he will surrender creative soul-mate partnership. “I Coming of age in Houston, Carvin to everything.” didn’t get a glimpse of Michael Carvin learned to lay down mean Texas blues Perpetuating that philosophy in his until I joined Jackie,” the drummer shuffles with local bands. In 1963, the teaching today, Carvin neither utilizes says. “I didn’t have a clue. Jackie go-getter stepped up to a successful nor endorses the tool. “There’s nothing immediately let me have freedom. He decade in L.A.’s recording and TV stu- wrong with this metronome,” he says, was the only leader I worked with that dios, interrupted by a ’65–’67 tour of pointing to his heart. “Great drummers would move aside to the edge of the duty in Vietnam. A stretch on the are responsible to the music. There’s a bandstand when he finished his solo. Motown staff in ’68 and ’69 further thin line.